Tempe
by lulu0814
Summary: “Please. Tell me what is holding you here,” I pleaded.


**After I wrote something from Perotta's point of view, it somehow made my brain come up with this, and the stupid bunny wouldn't let me go. It's not particularly fluffy, or angsty, it's just a very lengthy oneshot. Hopefully it's still interesting.**

*****

**Tempe **

I finally heard her voice, after waiting for what almost felt like a whole lifetime. She always came home pretty late because of her job. She was talking and laughing with some guy. She sounded happy. I guess that's good, right? I'd nearly forgotten how deep, low, and sexy her voice sounds like.

"I just can't see what's so entertaining in a bunch of men childishly pursuing a ball and struggling to hit it into baskets for no discernible…" She stopped short when she saw me. I smiled at her. She said nothing.

She was as pretty as I remembered her.

"It's a puck, Bones, not a ball," a voice answered behind us. "And it's a net, not a bask…" He stopped too. I was less happy to see him than her, I admit it, but his presence wasn't surprising either.

"Wh… what are you doing here?" she asked. Her eyes were round, likely surprised by my appearance on her doorstep.

"I just wanted to see you," I replied honestly. I thought she'd be happy to see me again after such a long absence. Instead she was just… shocked.

"Why are you standing in front of my apartment?" she asked as she brushed past me and unlocked the door to let us all in. He, on the other hand, glared at me intensely with a strange expression I couldn't quite place.

"I wanted to surprise you. What, you're not happy to see me?" I half-joked.

"Well I am… I am definitely surprised. I didn't expect you to be waiting in front of my apartment."

He wordlessly tossed a poker chip in the air. "You knew he was back in town?" he asked her softly. Was he usually this quiet? He used to be a pretty loud person, in my memory.

"Yes. I… I did." She informed him. "He called me the other day."

"You didn't tell me," he carefully pointed out. He didn't sound accusing, or disappointed, he only sounded a little sad, as though he expected her to inform him every single time anybody called her. Does that mean they're together now? I wouldn't be surprised if they were.

"I was going to tell you eventually, I simply didn't expect him to just show up out of nowhere," she shrugged off.

"Ah. Well. That's nice." He stood up. "I guess I should get going and let you two catch up and stuff." He put the chip back into his pocket.

"Booth, wait!" she yelled as he closed the door behind him.

She turned to me. The silence between us was deafening. Maybe startling her wasn't such a good idea?

"So, um, are you dating Booth now?" I finally asked. I couldn't tell for sure.

"What?" She sounded offended. "No, of course not, we're just partners, you know that. What makes you think we're dating?" The question annoyed her, I think. She took off her jacket and sat on the couch. I quickly followed.

"It's Friday evening, Tempe. He's coming over to your place for a reason visibly unrelated to work. That's not a very partner-ish thing to do."

"Sometimes we spend time together, you know how it is." Her tone told me to drop the subject.

"Right. So how've you been?"

"Oh, good. Reasonably good. Catching criminals, identifying dead people, same as usual. And you? You've been gone for quite a while, your epidermis looks darker from your prolonged exposure to the sun." She still talks in the same genius, snooty, adorable way. I liked that about her. I still do.

"I've been good. I've been really great. I really think you should've come with me, you know? Feel that wonderful tropical breeze on your face…"

We spent the next few minutes talking about what we did during the past few years. Or at least I did. She spent most of her time listening, and nodding at approximately the right places. After a while, I couldn't quite think of anything else to tell, and as a result we sat on her couch in awkward silence.

I didn't expect it to be the same between us, of course. I didn't expect her to fall at my feet and make sweet love to me, or anything melodramatic like that. I expected Booth and her to be a couple, maybe even a married couple. After all, when I left her, I essentially dumped her into Booth's open arms. I thought we could have a little chat for old times' sake, and I would make sure she was still as pretty as I remembered her, and then I would mope a little because letting her slip away was a dumb mistake, and we'd go on our own separate ways. That was all I expected from her.

But I'd hoped she still loved me. I knew it was stupid to cling to her after all these years, yet what I had with her was real, more than just a brief fling. I almost regretted leaving her. Sometimes I wondered if things would be better if I'd stayed in DC.  
I still don't understand why she stayed.

But she was single. By some weird miracle, she was actually single.  
That meant I had another chance.

"Hey Tempe?" I found the courage to ask only after I was out the front door.

"What?"

"I would like to take you out this Sunday. What d'you say we have dinner? Pick you up at eight?"

"Dinner? I… I don't know, I might have work to do."

"On Sunday? C'mon Brennan, live a little, have some fun. If I'm in town you can make an exception, right?"

"I don't know. I'll see if I'm free Sunday, but I can't promise…"

"Please? Come on, for old times' sake, huh?"

She sighed. "Fine. Sunday. But I warn you, Sully, I am currently experiencing a particularly busy week. I can't guarantee I'll be able to leave the lab at all."

"Well in this case I'll just have to drag you out of the Jeffersonian, then." I grinned. She has this cute little line between her eyebrows when she's annoyed.

"You're kidding right?"

"Maybe." I quickly walked away before she could protest, a big ecstatic grin plastered on my face. Could I possibly be lucky enough to get a second chance? The farther away I walked, the brighter my chances appeared to be.

*****

I confidently strolled into her office, only to see her hunched over her desk doing paperwork, her partner sitting on her couch, the both of them arguing passionately over... bicycles?  
My good mood deflated somewhat.

"Hey Tempe." I waved. Their heads both snapped up.

"Oh, Sully. Hi. What are you doing here?" She answered clumsily. She looks so cute when she's flustered. There's this innocence about her that she doesn't usually show.

"I'm coming to pick you up," I answered cheerfully. Booth looked at me venomously over the mountain of paper sprawled on the table in front of him.

"Damn. We had a date, didn't we. Right. I'm sorry, I have completely forgotten our arrangement, and I'm afraid we absolutely must plough through all these before the trial tomorrow…" She motioned towards the neat stacks of files covering most of her desk.

"No it's fine," I replied sullenly.

Booth was looking at her with a weird suspicious expression on his face, so at least he didn't see the disappointment on mine.

"I have too much work to do today, Sully. I really can't…"

"It's alright, we can do lunch some other time. When are you free?"

"I…" She glanced at Booth.

"Wednesday," he replied evenly. "You've got some time Wednesday afternoon, unless something pops up without warning."

"Wednesday, then," she told me. She looked back at Booth weirdly.

"Pick you up at eight?"

"Sure. But don't come in the lab again, it hampers my work."

"Ok. Yeah. Alright. But don't forget it next time."

I walked away, wondering if maybe I should have protested more. But before I made it to the exit, that artist girl, Angela, ran up to me and dragged me to her office without a word. She looked pissed.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Was the first thing she said to me after slamming the door extremely loudly behind us.

"It's… nice to see you too."

"Aren't you supposed to be in your boat, somewhere in The Bahamas?" Her tone sounded strangely accusing.

"Well I came back, as you can tell." I smiled nervously.

"Why?" She asked, unexplainably angry at me. I don't remember Angela being this… fierce before.

"Why what?"

"Why did you come back? Why now? Why… why couldn't you stay there forever?"

"I, because, because I didn't want to stay there forever. I had to move on eventually, do different things. And I wanted to see how Tempe was doing."

"Oh. So you got TIRED of the place." She arched her eyebrow and put her fists on her hips. What's with her?

"Yeah. I mean, it was nice for a while, but you know. Maybe I could settle down a little bit more. I don't want to limit myself, of course, but there are advantages to stability. Plus, I kinda started missing our boring American weather." I joked. She wasn't very amused.

"I see." She sat on her desk and crossed her legs. "And you want Brennan to help you settle down? Have babies and a little house in the suburbs?"

"Hey, no, not necessarily. I just missed her, I wanted to see her again. What's making you so angry?"

"What makes me angry is that you left her, you idiot!" Wow, she's kinda scary. I never knew she was this scary.

"I… I asked her to come! How can you blame me if she refused?" I tried to defend myself.

"Did you really expect her to go with you? She didn't think you were worth leaving for, that's why she stayed." We stared at each other in silence for a while, measuring each other with our eyes. My old suspicions arose.

"You're the reason she didn't come with me, aren't you? You told her to turn me down."

I've been wondering very hard about why in hell she didn't come with me. Why couldn't she leave her job for a year? Take a vacation for a short time? Do something self-fulfilling and fun? In the end, someone MUST have convinced her to stay, there was no other possible reason.

But she sniffed scornfully. "I told her to go, Sully. I encouraged her to go. If I was her I would've accepted in a heartbeat, but I'm not her, and she's not impulsive like we both are. I mean, people like me and you, we like new opportunities, sailing on the ocean, all that romantic stuff, but she doesn't. In her opinion you're, you were asking her to leave everything she had, her job, her family, her whole entire life, and you're really not worth giving up everything for. Nobody's worth that much. She knows that rationally she should go, that anyone else would jump on the opportunity, but deep down in her heart she doesn't want to leave. She's not that kind of person. And when she refused to follow you, YOU should have stayed with her, stupid. You should have showed her that she was more important than your boat and a trip to whatever tropical island you landed on. If you really loved her, why wasn't she as important as your stupid boat, then, huh?"

"I know, I know, and I regret it. That's one of the reasons I came back, to see how she is and whether or not I could have a second chance."

"You don't have a second chance. She doesn't love you. You might as well pack up and leave on your little sailboat again instead of wasting your time."

"How is this any of your business anyway? Why do you care?"

"Brennan is my best friend, idiot. I'm not gonna let you hurt her twice."

"I didn't… Not on purpo… You aren't really her best friend anymore, Booth is. And he hasn't objected yet, so I don't see what you have to complain about."

"Pfft. Booth is her partner, slash hunky guardian angel, slash love of her life, he's not her BFF. I am still her official best friend, and as such I have a right to order you to stay the heck away from her."

"Love of her life? Booth isn't even interested in her. And Temperance doesn't love him either."

She snorted. The mocking little look on her face irritated me. If she was a man, I would've punched it off. "Puh-lease. A blind person could see the sexual tension between them. A five year old could tell they have feelings for each other. An alien from Saturn could…"

"I don't see it." I flatly lied.

"Because you're in denial, darling."

"I… Ok, so maybe Booth is in love with her." I admitted. "I can't see how a man wouldn't fall in love with her. But Tempe doesn't love him back, Angela. If she did they would already be a couple."

Her whole person softened all of a sudden, and pity replaced her contempt. I'm not sure I liked that change.

"Believe me, she DOES love him. Let her go. That's the only thing for you to do. She belongs with Booth. After this long, they deserve to end up together, just because they've been through too much for anyone to mess them up." Her tone was almost kind. It irritated me even more than her previous disdain.

"Booth doesn't deserve her more than I do, does he? If they aren't together after this long, they'll never be. If I hadn't sailed away, we would've stayed together, Tempe and I, and you'd be telling Booth to back off, not me."

She sighed. "You know what, Sully? In the end I think you'd have gotten tired of her. If you hook up, you'll get tired of her just like you get tired of everything else, and you'll resent the lack of freedom she brought to you. Then you'll set off again for something better, because Temperance Brennan isn't important enough to be all your life." Sadly, she could be right. Maybe trying to settle down will only be a phase. But I wasn't going to admit it to her.

"You can't possibly know I'll do any of this."

"I used to be like you, trust me. All flighty, and free-spirited, and independent. But that's not what Brennan wants in a man. She needs somebody who will never, ever leave her. Too many loved ones left her already, she needs someone stable, someone HERE. You obviously are not that person."

"Maybe I've changed. I realized I made a mistake and I want to fix it. I won't leave her again next time."

"Booth loves her more than you." For Christ's sake, why is she so loyal to Booth? It's illogical.

"Heh, yeah. No offense to Booth, he's a good guy and all, but Tempe deserves better. Booth is so… conservative. So narrow-minded. They're too different to be a couple. I'm positive I'm better for her." Angela's eyes darkened and any last drop of kindness seemed to vanish from her being for the rest of eternity.

"That is the most hypocritical, cruelest, wrongest thing I've ever imagined any of Brennan's ex say out loud, and she's dated a guy who chopped off his own brother's head. That's like… That's like, worse than the terrible things Jared would say!"

"Who?"

"Booth and Brennan worked together for years, and you were with her for barely a month! Do you think you know her better than Booth? I don't know her better than Booth, and you've got the guts to come in after your little cruise and insult him when he's the one who picked her up after you left? They love each other more than you'll ever love anyone or anything, you son-of-a-bitch! They're there for each other, unlike you, who'll run off at the first occasion. They both believe in truth, and family, and staying together at all cost!"

"Why are you so pissed about me sailing off? I asked her to come! Why are you blaming me?"

"Because you had no right to ask that of her, you moron! She wasn't gonna leave Booth just because you two had great sex! Booth was the one who hugged her during her father's trial, it's Booth who took a freaking bullet in the chest for her, he consoled her when Zack went psycho, he accepted to be her baby daddy when she forced him…"

"What?" Is Temperance pregnant?

"You've got no chance against that kind of devotion, Sully. He's given her everything he can, his heart, and his soul, and almost his life, and you couldn't give her more in two lifetimes. I won't let you ruin what they have."

"What did you say about baby daddies? She's gonna have his kid?"

"Not anymore, Booth got a brain tumor, but my point still stands. If you loved her, you'd let her go. You'd want what's best for her. I love her myself, and it took me a while, but I've come to realize that Booth is the best thing that's ever happened to her and she won't possibly be as happy with anybody else. I'll do whatever I can to keep them both safe from potential dangers."

"Am I a danger?" I asked disbelievingly. God, the girl makes me sound evil. And did she say Booth had a tumor?

"Duh. You're a horrible threat. Code Red and Wing Attack Plan R sort of threat."

"It's too late for you to intervene. Sorry. I got a date with her on Wednesday."

"Well cancel it," she growled menacingly, shoving a finger in my face. "If you don't, Booth will crash it. And if he doesn't, I will."

"Oh. Yeah. I remember how he kept interrupting us... But, but he's the one who told me she was free on Wednesday. It means he approves. And if he approves, you should too. Besides, neither of you decides who she wants to date, she's not married to him or anything."

"They are a couple, they just, they just aren't having sex yet!" she yelled angrily.

I shrugged. "Until they do, there's nothing wrong with me taking Tempe out to dinner."

"Sully, I'm serious. Booth loves her"

"So do I."

"Do you want me to beg? I can beg."

"No, I don't want you to beg." I rolled my eyes.

"Ok. Sully, I know you're still in love with her, and I'm sorry it's got to be this way between you and Brennan. But if despite all my pleading you're still stubborn enough to try separating them, then you're a pathetic piece of selfish shit. I got nothing else to say."

"Wow, what?"

"Goodbye, Sully." She pushed me out of her office and slammed the door even louder than the first time.

What the hell was that? Why does this girl hate me when I barely remember her? Maybe she's bitter because I nearly took away her best friend. Or she thinks I'll hurt Tempe in some way. Whatever her reason was, she was acting ridiculously and my relationship with Temperance was absolutely none of her business anyhow. I deserve her at least as much as Booth, don't I? I had something great with her, and if she was nice enough to give me a second chance, we could have it back. Booth would just have to deal.

*****

She looked absolutely stunning amidst the dim lights of the restaurant and the soft clinking of cutlery and glasses. Her pale, piercing eyes had never looked more dazzling than at the precise moment they met mine, two deep pools of feminine mystery. The skin revealed by her dark dress looked too smooth and tantalizing to be real.

"You should try the lamb, Tempe." I offered, tearing my eyes away from her and down towards the menu. "It's really good if I remember correctly. But then again I might've become senile, it feels like decades since the last time I had a woman as beautiful as you sitting with me for dinner." I hoped I didn't sound corny.

"I'm a vegetarian now," she simply replied. Is it just me or is she acting a little differently from before? Almost cold.

"Oh. That's, that's very nice. Good for you," I stammered, not knowing what else to say.

She ordered a salad.

We ate a little awkwardly, had a slightly clumsy conversation about the customs of the Mariche people of Venezuela (which I knew nothing about) and the general state of tourism in the Caribbean.

I thought we were doing pretty well when I started talking about turtles. She looked genuinely interested. But then, of course, her phone had to start ringing at the precise moment I managed with some difficulty to make her laugh. That was one annoying things about being with her, her phone was constantly ringing at the worst conceivable moments. Whenever I told her not to pick up, she did. Her job was oh-so important.

"Hello?" she asked. "No, you know I can't right now." She sighed, bit her lips. It gave me a sudden urge to kiss her pretty bottom lip. "How bad?" Her expression was grave as she listened intently. When she looked at me apologetically, I had the sinking feeling she was going to leave me again. "I see. Fine, you win, I'm coming."

She turned to me as she stuffed her phone down her purse. "I have to go, Sully. I am really, really sorry I have to diss you again." She stood up and pushed her chair in.

"Diss me? You mean ditch?"

"Diss, ditch. What difference does it make? God, you almost sound like Booth." She rolled her eyes and smiled a little. "I would stay with you if I had a choice, but a human body was found in the sewers half an hour ago. Booth claims the carcass isn't big enough to be a full-grown adult. Catching murderers is more important than a date, I'm afraid, especially when the victim is underage."

"You want me to give you a ride?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll take a taxi. You don't mind picking up the tab?"

"No of course…"

"Goodbye, Sully." She walked off rapidly, without even throwing me a last glance. The fading sound of her heels seemed to mock me. I stared bitterly at her back until her silky hair disappeared from view.

Booth. Always Booth.

*****

"Booth."

"What are you doing here, Sully?" He looked up from his desk.

"I gotta talk to you."

"Hmm. 'Bout what? Can't this wait?"

"About Tempe." He scrunched up his brow but didn't object when I entered his office.

"Are you planning on joining our wonderful Federal Bureau of Investigations again or do you just miss me?" He asked nonchalantly.

"I would never miss your ugly face so it clearly must be the other option." I said smugly. If they take me back, I'll get closer to the Jeffersonian whichever way I can.

He chuckled mirthlessly. "I see. Sailboat boy wants to be an agent again. And I thought you were sick and tired of this morbid job, you hypocrite. Well, are you gonna insult me all day or do you seriously have something to talk about?"

"You did it on purpose didn't you? You called her because you knew she would ditch me for a dead kid. You wanted to screw up our date." I bluntly accused.

"Nope. That was actually one of the rare times I didn't ruin her date on purpose."

"Oh, so they just HAPPENED to find a body in the sewers Wednesday evening at the precise moment we were out having dinner?"

"Well, what d'you think? That I killed someone just to make you mad? Don't flatter yourself."

"You're the one who told her not to leave with me!" I exploded. "I knew it! I KNEW you were in love with her, you pathetic bastard. It takes such a, such a sick son-of-a-bitch to backstab someone like that. You were there, pretending to give me advice while you secretly…"

"Shut the fuck up." He spat icily, his face unnaturally blank. "I told her to go, you little cunt."

I stared at him. I decided he was lying. "I don't believe you."

"That's not my problem." He shrugged a bit too casually.

"Why would you tell her to go? Do you think I'm an idiot? I mean, I know you're in love with her, anybody who's got eyes can tell. You're the one who convinced her to stay even though you don't have the balls to even kiss her."

"I didn't convince her," he grumbled through his clenched jaw.

"Why would you tell her to go, huh? Why would you push her away? For years I've wondered, and I was sure it was you who…"

"She deserves better," he murmured. He looked at me straight in the eyes, dropping his casual act. And then I knew he wasn't lying.

"Oh." Was all I could think of saying.

"Listen Sully, I understand your… desire to go away, to leave all this death and murders behind. Hell, when my brother asked me to roam around India with him it nearly sounded tempting. What I'm saying is… I'm not blaming you for going away those years ago. But I want one thing to be clear, though. If you lead her on just to hurt her again, I will end you. All right?"

"Yeah. I get it."

He sighed, rubbed his face before continuing.

"You're a good guy, Sully. Don't hurt her. Please." He sounded like he was imploring me. A pain he had previously hidden was now visible on his features and I realized how nearly impossible it was for him to let her go.

"I won't. I won't hurt her," I promised.

When I left the room, Booth looked ten years older.

She deserves better. That's what he told me. He thinks she deserves more than all this death and madness, this boring routine she's accustomed to in Washington, he thinks she deserves more than himself, even. According to Booth, she was too good for all those things. Yet, in the end, it seems that was exactly what she wanted all along.

It was time for me to be sincere to myself. Angela was right. I'm a pathetic piece of selfish sh*t.

*****

"I'm sorry you have to leave so soon, Sully."

"It's for the best." She appeared genuinely sad. Knowing I would be missed made me strangely happy.

"Listen, Sully. About… us. I just wanted to say…"

"It was just a fling, Tempe. Nothing more. Don't worry about it."

"It was?" She dropped her fork down onto her plate.

"Yeah."

"But what about the speech you made? You told me what we had was more than just a fling." She had her 'hurt little girl' eyes on. I'd confused her.

"It takes two people for that kind of stuff," I answered gently.

"Are you leaving because of me? Did I do something wrong?" Oh crap, she's not going to cry, is she? I promised Booth I wouldn't hurt her.

"No, no, none of this is your fault, it's all mine. It's my fault for coming back in the first place."

"What I had with you, it was the longest and most meaningful relationships I've ever had with a man…"

"It's not."

"…And I know people think I'm arrogant and unfeeling…"

"You're not."

"But I did like you a lot, Sully. And your departure was tremendously unpleasant." I think her eyes started watering at that moment.

"But Booth was there to comfort you, wasn't he?" I said hurriedly. "Looking back, you made the right decision."

"Yes. Booth was there."

I stared at the table, fiddled with my cup. "Hey Tempe?" I finally asked.

"Yes?" She was stabbing at her plate more forcefully than necessary.

"Why didn't you leave with me? Did anyone convince you to stay, or did you decide by yourself?" I had to know. If nothing else, I at least deserved an answer from her.

She said nothing, and went on stabbing her plate.

"Please. Tell me what is holding you here," I pleaded. "That's all I'm asking for."

"I decided by myself," she whispered. "Booth and Angela, they both wanted me to go, they thought it would be good for me. And I wanted to go too. And I knew I should have. But I couldn't."

"Why?" I questioned, although I probably already knew the answer. I just needed some goddamn closure.

"Well this psychologist, Gordon Wyatt, thinks I was simply unable to lead a purposeless life at that stage in my psycho-social development."

"What? What does that even mean?" That wasn't the answer I expected.

"Psychology is an utterly unreliable soft science, so Dr, Wyatt is most likely wrong anyway."

"And I thought you stayed because of Booth."

She stared at me hesitantly. "Frankly, I thought so too at the time," she confessed.

"So you gave up a wonderful trip around the South Seas and a charming, handsome, amazing man because of Booth?" I softly smiled. I kept my voice playful and without reproach. The last thing I wanted was to make Tempe feel guilty. Thankfully, I don't think she was able to tell how heartbroken I was inside.

"I don't know why I didn't sail off, Sully. What I do know is that it has nothing to do with you. You are a great person, and I'm certain you…"

"Booth?" I called over her shoulder. A man who looked suspiciously similar to Booth had just entered the diner, stared at our table for a stunned moment, and hurriedly tried to leave without being noticed.

"Sully, Bones. Hi," he said awkwardly, his hand still on the door.

"What are you doing here, Booth?" she asked suspiciously.

"I was going to have some lunch. I swear I had no idea you were both here." He wouldn't be so nervous if he'd come in on purpose, so it was probably a coincidence. Or fate, who knows. Regardless, I took it as my cue to leave.

"Well, it was nice seeing y'all. I'm gonna go now." I kissed Temperance's cheek as I stood up. The smell of her hair against my nose and the soft skin of her face against my lips was something I would never forget. It was very hard not to hate Booth in that instant, but I figured if he could act selflessly for the sake of a woman he loved twice as much as me, I could find the strength to do the same thing.

"Bye, Booth. It was nice seeing you." I tapped him on the shoulder.

"You're leaving already? Where?"

"Oh, I don't know, I was thinking of somewhere cold like Canada or Alaska." I leaned in and whispered, "I'd rather hurt her a little bit now than start leading her on if I stay too long. I'm sorry. Don't kill me for it."

He smiled. He looked so damn grateful that for a second I was almost glad he'd get his Bones instead of me.

"So," I went on, "You'll be there to pick up the pieces after I leave?"

"Yeah." He gazed at her, his lunch totally forgotten.

I nodded at them both and walked slowly towards my rented car, but halfway there I couldn't help turning back to look at her for the last time. I felt like crap. I wanted to run back in. I wanted to kiss her hard. I wanted to stay longer.

Yet Tempe deserves better than me, and I wasn't going to torture myself with her proximity. Booth might somehow manage to hide his feelings every time he's with her, but I couldn't make that kind of sacrifice. And his beautiful, strong, beloved Temperance was ready to make enormous sacrifices for him too, without even completely knowing why. She doesn't need me here.

I watched glumly as Brennan stood up, silently letting Booth help her with her jacket. His fingers brushed against her hair as he pulled it onto her shoulders. His hand caressed her cheek softly, wiping away her tears maybe. God, I hope I didn't make her cry. She hugged him as soon as she faced him, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to hug your FBI partner in a dinner during lunchtime, and he hugged her back, his face full of genuine compassion, pulling her closer to him and rubbing her back with infinite tenderness. He whispered something into her ear when she let go, a smile forming on the corners of his lips. She laughed, then. And when I saw her little laugh, I knew for sure she'd be fine.  
There was barely two inches in between their faces. I expected them to kiss, I was convinced they would kiss. But… somehow they didn't. They simply stared at each other for a while without saying a word, their eyes full of something I silently envied.

When they finally walked out, Booth's arm wrapped around her waist, I made it to my car as far as I could and drove away a bit too quickly. I seriously could go up to Alaska, now that I think of it. I've got some money saved, and I wouldn't mind a complete change of scenery in a nice peaceful place. Or I could go to Canada, I heard some good things about Montreal and Vancouver. People are nice in Canada. I just wanted to get as far away as possible and forget her.

I sighed. Guess Tempe is not important enough to be my whole life.

*****

**I finally wrote a fic where Booth is not distorted into an idealistic version of himself. YES. But Brennan is this time. Noooo.  
And, erm, sorry for the language.**


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